Righthaven’s motion for extension denied. They have to respond to the defendants motion to dismiss. The federal judge in question, John Kane of the District of Colorado, doesn’t seem very amused with the Righthaven business model. Good.
Year: 2011
I See the Canadian Left is Just as Silly on Guns
So many things wrong with this statement:
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has promised a St. Catharines woman whose daughter was killed in 1996 with a stolen handgun that his party plans to simplify the gun registry will not weaken it.
OK, so the woman’s daughter was killed with a stolen gun, which I feel we are safe in assuming the daughters murderer did not then go register with police, so to make her feel better I will propose that we streamline the process for rural farmers to register their long guns, which naturally can’t possibly be stolen and used in murders. Because if we streamline the process, maybe then murderers with stolen long guns will go register them with police, giving us the opportunity to catch them.
What I want to know is if this made the woman feel better. I’m betting it did. I’m also betting the woman in question is still grieving, and is a few sandwiches short of a picnic on this issue because of that. Grieving people should not be the basis of public policy, and this is why.
Campus Carry in PA
This employee over at Point Park University seems to think it would be just awful if we were to pass campus carry in Pennsylvania, as other states are currently debating. Hate to tell you prof, but there’s no such crime as carrying a firearm on a university campus in Pennsylvania, provided you have an LTC. The worst that can happen is the school can ask you to leave (permanently, if you’re a student). This issue has not been pressing in this Commonwealth, because unlike the other states where this is being debated, carry on college campuses isn’t criminalized. If we were to have such a bill here, it would only be a matter of disallowing state funded universities from having such a policy prohibiting guns on campus.
Revolvers Don’t Use Casings
I know caseless ammo is something people have tried developing for years, but according to Homeland Security Newswire, it’s already fact.
Parody Through Caricature
I have to hand it to whoever created this blog. It was hard to tell at first whether it was real. But I’m fairly certain it’s parodying our opponents by use of caricature. How else do you explain a gem like this?
It’s come to my attention that gun owners belong to the NRA and are Tea Party Insurrectionists Extremist Gunophile Fetishists. It’s also notable that they will often give up their families, careers, and even their life to have “Wild West†type shootouts over minor disputes such as parking spots or to compensate for some other shortcoming. Again, this is not personal conjecture but consensus among the public as verified in the Comments sections of several web sites. That’s not to say that they don’t favor common sense civilian disarmament polices such as the prohibition of AK-47 Assault Weapons since they can now safely be considered Weapons of Mass Destruction, and have no civilian use, or the reasonable ban of Glock brand machine pistols since they have no militia use and therefore, are not protected by the Second Amendment.
It would be funnier if it was more of a caricature, though. Unfortunately, it’s not really much of one. I think if the folks over CSGV were to see this site, they’d be regular readers.
The Crazy Things People Carry
A guy in Pennsylvania is getting his LTC yanked and facing charges after he accidentally left his North American Arms .22 mini revolver in a nursing home. A staff woman found it, thought it was a toy, and sent a round into the wall. What’s even more surprising than the fact that he was carrying what I think is a novelty gun, is the fact that after losing it, he didn’t do anything to try to find it. If I lost a gun I’d be panicked.
The article notes he’s been charged with “reckless enlargement.” I guess we can’t have people out there enlarging things with reckless abandon.
McCarthy, Lautenberg Editorialize for Magazine Ban
Over at the Huffington Post, the dynamic duo of gun hating have teamed up to demand we ban mass murder magazines now.
Happy to Disappoint
Daley isn’t too pleased with the concealed carry bill:
“Do you want guns at your neighborhood festival or block party? Or in a park, like the one we’re here today? CTA buses or trains? Do you want students with concealed weapons walking around every college campus in the state?”
Why yes. Yes I do. Because I’m pro-choice.
UPDATE: Probably not going to happen now, but this bill does a little better every year.
Weaknesses in FOIA
It’s pretty easy to see, based on the heavily redacted documents that were produced in response to David Codrea’s FOIA request on the gunwalker scandal that there is something wrong with how we’re implementing the idea that the records the government produces belong to the people. Part of that has to do with how the act is structured.
Currently every agency is required to have a FOIA office that handles those kinds of requests and produces the documents. This is going to create bad incentives for that agency to release as little as they can get away with, and bend the requirements of the law to the greatest extent possible in order to achieve that goal.
There should be a separate government agency in charge of FOIA requests, who are authorized to go into every government office, look at and duplicate records, and make the determination about how to implement the law. With FOIA being a separate agency, it will put the natural power hungry and empire building nature of bureaucrats to work doing the people’s business. Agents may even revel in revealing embarrassing or damning information from other agencies.
There should also be a mechanism that if a FOIA agent feels a document is improperly classified, its status can be challenged before an administrative law judge, with all the proper security clearances and precautions for classified data in place. Currently if you feel an agency is inappropriately denying your FOIA request, the onus to file suit is on you.
I’d even be up for paying the agents on a per document basis, and giving them bonuses based on the number of documents they get declassified. You can think of incentives here that could work pretty well. A lot of politicians have never liked FOIA, but if the government wants me to be an open book to it, then my government damned well better be an open book to me.
The Republican Bench in Pennsylvania
SayUncle in Tennessee seems to share some of my anxiety about GOP prospects in 2012. He speaks of the national race, but any national race starts in the states, and Pennsylvania, as the nation’s 6th largest state, is a good example of that problem.
Bitter and I were speaking yesterday afternoon about the dire situation represented by the GOP bench headed into the 2012 elections. Ignoring the fact this article is mostly about how Tom Corbett is getting into trouble with our commonwealth’s schizophrenic voters (who want pet programs, a balanced budget and reasonable taxes), it shows something important about Bob Casey:
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton, enters his campaign next year for a second term with what Lee called a limited base of support. Thirty-two percent of voters said he deserves re-election, compared with 43 percent who told pollsters it’s time for someone new.
Pennsylvania is generally accepted as a purple-hued blue state. After 2010, we have one conservative Republican Senator in the form of Pat Toomey, who I’d like to think is all of Rick Santorum’s fiscal conservatism, without the paranoia about what the queers are doing to the soil. Could we have two? Traditionally, there’s been Arlen Spector for those who wanted to vote GOP without really doing so. But we don’t have Arlen Specter to kick around anymore.
Who is the GOP going to put up against Bob Casey? Tom Ridge is about the only candidate who comes to mind. Only because he’s is well known and a well liked former governor. His name was floated his name in 2010 to run against Specter. Ridge carries the stench of having carried Bush’s homeland security agenda for longer than is healthy for average mortals. That’s not even mentioning Ridge isn’t really a conservative on important issues, much like his spendy former boss. Besides, rumor has it that Ridge is now a Marylander, and couldn’t run even if he was interested the Pennsylvania Senate race.
Who else? Curt Weldon was driven out of Congress on questionable accusations of corruption in 2006. Maybe he’d like to make a comeback. But let’s face it, we are sending him to Libya right now because every hostage taker worth his salt will only abduct someone that someone else wants back. That probably isn’t Curt. I think Weldon is well done at this point. He’s not coming back for a statewide race.
Jim Gerlach certainly wants a state-wide seat, but after dropping out of the primary for the 2010 Governor race, I think he needs to stay right where he is. Otherwise I’m not confident his 6th district seat will stay in GOP hands without some gerrymandering magic. Gerlach is a poster boy for the fact that there are few GOP Congressional seats safe enough in Pennsylvania that can surely be held in an open race.
Who else does the GOP have with solid statewide name recognition? I really can’t think of anyone. But then, why did Bob Casey Jr. win the 2006 election? Maybe because Santorum was getting gay sex acts named after him, and Bob Casey Jr. happened to be the son of this Bob Casey. This problem also cuts both ways. To make the point, do Democrats want to run Onorato, “Dan Onorato,” again for anything? That was your bench against Corbett.
Pennsylvania is legitimately up for grabs, for either party. But don’t anyone get too excited. Neither party is much in a position to exploit it. Perhaps that is good for our Commonwealth in the long run, because I’ve never been convinced of the benefits of single party rule, no matter what that party is.